Sean O'Brien
Sean O'Brien (born 19 December 1952) is an English poet, critic, and playwright. Life O'Brien was born in London, and grew up in Hull. He was educated at Selwyn College, University of Cambridge.Selwyn College Freshmen 1971 http://www.selwyn.saund.co.uk/1971freshmen1.html He has lived in Newcastle upon Tyne since 1990. Career O Brien's book of essays on contemporary poetry, The Deregulated Muse (Bloodaxe), was published in 1998, as was his anthology The Firebox: Poetry in Britain and Ireland after 1945 (Picador). Cousin Coat: Selected Poems 1976-2001 (Picador) was published in 2002. Sean O'Brien's new verse version of Dante's Inferno was published by Picador in October 2006. His six collections of poetry to date have all won awards. In 2007 he won the Northern Rock Foundation Writer's Award, Forward Prize for Best Collection and the T S Eliot Prize for The Drowned Book (Picador, 2007). This was the first time a poet had been awarded the Forward and the Eliot prizes in the same year. In 2006, he was appointed Professor of Creative Writing at Newcastle University, and was previously Professor of Poetry at Sheffield Hallam University. He is a Vice-President of the Poetry Society.The Poetry Society He was co-founder of the literary magazine The Printer's Devil and contributes reviews to newspapers and magazines including The Sunday Times and The Times Literary Supplement and is a regular broadcaster on radio. His writing for television includes "Cousin Coat", a poem-film in Wordworks (Tyne Tees Television, 1991); "Cantona", a poem-film in On the Line (BBC2, 1994); Strong Language, a 45-minute poem-film (Channel 4, 1997) and The Poet Who Left the Page, a profile of Simon Armitage (BBC4, 2002). Recognition Prizes he has garnered include the Eric Gregory Award (1979), the Somerset Maugham Award (1984), the Cholmondeley Award (1988), the Forward Poetry Prize (2001 and 2007), and the T.S. Eliot Prize (2007). He is one of only two poets (the other being John Burnside) to have won both the T.S. Eliot Prize and the Forward Poetry Prize for the same collection of poems. Awards and prizes *1979 - Eric Gregory Award *1984 - Somerset Maugham Award – The Indoor Park *1988 - Cholmondeley Award *1992 - Northern Arts Literary Fellowship *1993 - E.M. Forster AwardAmerican Academy of Arts and Letters - Home *1995 - Forward Poetry Prize (Best Poetry Collection of the Year) – Ghost TrainForward Arts Foundation *2001 - Forward Poetry Prize (Best Poetry Collection of the Year) – Downriver *2001 - Northern Writer of the Year Award *2001 - T.S. Eliot Prize (shortlist) – Downriver *2006 - Forward Poetry Prize (Best Single Poem for Fantasia on a Theme of James Wright) *2007 - Northern Rock Foundation Writer's Award *2007 - Forward Poetry Prize (Best Collection) – The Drowned Book *2007 - T.S. Eliot Prize – The Drowned Book BBC News: "O'Brien honoured with poetry win". *2007 - Royal Society of Literature fellowship *2012 - Griffin Poetry Prize International shortlist - November Publications Poetry *''The Indoor Park''. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Bloodaxe, 1983. *''The Frighteners''. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Bloodaxe, 1987. *''Boundary Beach.'' Belfast: Honest Ulsterman, 1989. *''HMS Glasshouse''. Oxford, UK, & New York: Oxford University Press, 1991. *''A Rarity''. Hull, UK: Carnivorous Arpeggio Press, 1993. *''Ghost Train''. Oxford, UK, & New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. *''Penguin Modern Poets 5'' (by Simon Armitage, Sean O'Brien, & Tony Harrison). London & New York: Penguin, 1995. *''The Ideology''. Huddersfield, UK: Smith / Doorstep, 1997. *''Downriver''. London: Picador, 2011. *''Cousin Coat: Selected Poems, 1976-2001 . London: Picador, 2002. *''Rivers (with John Kinsella and Peter Porter). Fremantle, WA: Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 2002. *''The Drowned Book''. London: Picador, 2007. *''Night Train'' (art by Birtley Aris). Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Flambard Press, 2009. *''November''. London: Picador, 2011. *''Collected Poems''. London: Picador, 2012. Plays *''Keepers of the Flame''. London: Methuen, 2003. *"Laughter when We're Dead" in Live Theatre: Six plays from the north east. London: Methuen, 2003. Novels *''Afterlife''. London: Picador, 2009. Short fiction *''Ellipsis 1: Short stories by Sean O'Brien, Jean Sprackland and Tim Cooke''. Manchester, UK: Comma Press, 2005. *''Phantoms at the Phil'' (with Chaz Brenchley and Gail-Nina Anderson). Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK: Side Real Press / Northern Gothic, 2005. *''Phantoms at the Phil- The Second Proceedings'' (with Chaz Brenchley and Gail-Nina Anderson). ). Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Side Real Press / Northern Gothic, 2006. *''Phantoms at the Phil- The Third Proceedings'' (with Chaz Brenchley and Gail-Nina Anderson). Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Side Real Press / Northern Gothic, 2007. *''The Silence Room''. Manchester, UK: Comma Press, 2008. *''Museum Island''. . Manchester, UK: Comma Press, 2008. Non-fiction *''The Deregulated Muse: Essays on contemporary British and Irish poetry''. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Bloodaxe, 1998. *''Journeys to the Interior: Ideas of England in contemporary poetry''. Tarset, Northumberland, UK: Bloodaxe Books, 2012. Translated *''The Birds: a new verse version of Aristophanes' Birds''. London: Methuen, 2003. *''Inferno: a verse version of Dante's Inferno''. London: Picador, 2006. Edited *''The Firebox: Poetry in Britain and Ireland after 1945''. London: Picador, 1998. * 2008: Andrew Marvell: poems selected by Sean O'Brien (Poet to Poet series, Faber and Faber) *''Train Songs: An anthology'' (edited with Don Paterson). London: Faber, 2013. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Sean O'Brien, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Feb. 15, 2014. Audio / video *''Sean O'Brien: Reading from his poems''. London: Poetry Archive, 2005. See also * List of British poets References *''The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Poetry'' (edited by Ian Hamilton). Oxford University Press, 1996. *Peter Davidson, The Idea of North. Reaktion Books, 2005. Notes External links ;Poems * "Leavetaking" * "Timor Mortis" *O'Brien in The Guardian: "The Beautiful Librarians," "Audiology" *"Oysterity" ;Audio / video * Sean O'Brien (b. 1952) at The Poetry Archive *Sean O'Brien at YouTube ;About *Sean O'Brien at the British Council * Griffin Prize biography * November, by Sean O'Brien reviewed in the Independent. Category:1952 births Category:Living people Category:Writers from Kingston upon Hull Category:English poets Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Category:Alumni of Selwyn College, Cambridge Category:Cholmondeley Award winners Category:20th-century poets Category:21st-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets